Latest Articles

I Double Dairy You

Got pollution controls? Five dairy farms in California soon will — and environmentalists hope the new rules will eventually apply to dairies nationwide. To avoid legal action by environmental groups, the five farms in the Inland Empire region of the state have agreed to modernize their operations by developing greener plans for manure lagoons and […]

Dam Straight!

In what environmentalists hope is the beginning of a major trend, 60 dams across the U.S. are slated for demolition this year and hundreds more are targeted for removal. Last week, for example, Portland General Electric signed a deal to remove the Marmot Dam on the Sandy River in Oregon and a smaller dam on […]

It’s time to end the race to the bottom

Here’s a simple game that makes a not-so-simple point. Stand in a line, with several friends. Each of you hold your right index finger out in front of your body. Now place a long stick across all of your fingers, balanced upon them. Your collective goal is to lower the stick to the ground. There […]

Lip Styx

Think twice before you powder your nose. A cosmetics industry review panel this week approved continued use of chemicals that critics have linked to birth defects in animals. The Cosmetic Ingredient Review Panel said that three phthalates, which are used to make fragrances last longer, posed no threat to human health. Nail polish, hair spray, […]

At Whitman’s End?

Speculation is growing that U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman might resign now that the Bush administration has a GOP-controlled Congress in its holster and its sights set on further environmental rollbacks. Whitman has won favor neither from environmentalists, nor from industry lobbyists. Environmentalists say she has caved to others in the administration on important issues, […]

Spain and Suffering

An oil tanker carrying twice as much oil as was lost by the Exxon Valdez in 1989 split in two today and sank in the Atlantic Ocean, threatening to cause an environmental disaster on the Spanish coast 133 miles away. The tanker “Prestige” first ran into trouble almost a week ago when its hull cracked […]

Corn at the Right Time

The activist-friendly town of Takoma Park, Md., unveiled an inspiring (albeit funny-looking) monument to the clean energy movement yesterday: A silo that holds 21 tons of organic corn. The corn will be used as an alternative fuel to heat a dozen homes in the town’s Save Our Sky Home-Heating Cooperative, keeping more than 100,000 pounds […]

Life in the Fast Lane

Since early this month, environmental educator John Quigley has spent most of his time perched high in the leafy boughs of a 400-year-old oak tree that developers want removed to expand a local road in Santa Clarita, Calif. The proposed throughway would enable traffic to flow to a suburban community where more than 21,000 new […]

Sound Off

Some 92,000 acres of mud and sand at the bottom of the Pacific Northwest’s Puget Sound is contaminated with dioxin, toxic metals, and PCBs (just for starters), all the result of industrial pollution. In turn, these nasties make their way into the sound’s critters. Crabs are poisoned, while orca whales, salmon, and even some herring […]

merlin matthews, Re~Cycle

merlin matthews is founder and president of Re~Cycle, a U.K.-based nonprofit that collects and ships second-hand bikes and bike parts to developing countries. Monday, 18 Nov 2002 WEST MERSEA, Essex, U.K. Today was a bit of a nonstarter, as I was up till some crazy hour, coming tantalizingly close to fixing the wretched computers. Who […]